Recently, the Find & Replace feature has been made available on the formula bar, which makes it easier to find the variable, function, or expression in a long lines.
This Find & Replace is targeted within a single formula, a new preview feature "Search" which improves authoring experience for canvas app has been added to preview environment, so I will briefly introduce this.
NOTE
The feature can be enabled on authoring version >= 3.22031 in both preview and non-preview environment.
What we can do with "Search"
- Search for expressions, variables, controls, properties, data source names, media containing the entered string inside app
- Narrowing down the search target by category
- Search options such as case sensitivity and exact match
When you enter string in the text box displayed in the "Search" pane, the controls, expressions, media, etc. that contain that character are categorized and displayed in a tree view.
You can also filter these results by category (Variables, Collections, Data, Media, Flows, Components, and Screens), and can perform more precise searches by using case sensitivity, exact match, and even regex.
A similar feature already existed in the "TreeView" pane, but it was very limited compared to the Search feature this time, as it only targeted control names in the app.
What we can NOT do with "Search"
- Replacement for search results (Only "Search", not Find & Replace across formulas)
- Search for the contents of data (e.g. column name, value)
The only function added this time is search, and the function to replace the search results is not provided.
Also, while the name of the data source and collections can be searched, the contents of the data source do not seem to be searched.
This update will help many app makers. It's especially helpful to be able to search for expressions throughout the app and jump to results.
As far as I heared, makers also want to have "Replace" feature, so stay tuned for future updates.
